MOBILE, Alabama -- “What is going on?” said Jonas Otsuji, complaining about Monroeville native Colton Cumbie during Wednesday night’s episode of “Survivor: One World.” “How does he get away with this?”

For Otsuji, who has willingly taken on the role of flunky to Cumbie during the latest season of the long-running CBS reality show, it was a rare moment of doubt. Also a brief one: By the episode’s end, he’d helped Cumbie pull off a classic blindside, getting rid of a teammate who never saw it coming.

The fifth episode of the season was an eventful one, starting with a reshuffle that ended the segregation of an all-female Salani tribe and an all-male Manono group. The new tribal order created a distinct physical imbalance, with the reformed Salani having the edge in strength, youth and – though this is a highly subjective call in the world of reality TV – sanity.

Cumbie was none too thrilled with the deal, saying his own new Manono group looked like “peasants” while the Salanis looked like “Greek gods” by comparison.

“Not only did I get on a tribe of people that I don’t want to be on a tribe with, I am on a tribe of people who suck,” he groused. “We’re not going to be able to compete with them in anything.”

After losing the episode’s reward challenge, Manono had to move and establish a new camp, while Salani reveled in its new chemistry.

While his Manono teammates labored to set up camp, Cumbie spent his time networking. That politicking initially irritated Otsuji, but he fell into line once he realized that Cumbie had successfully built a new alliance.

A purely physical elimination challenge favored Salani, who duly won. But Cumbie smoothly duped a Manono minority into believing that Greg “Tarzan” Smith was to be voted out, setting up the blindside of Monica Culpepper. Perennial outsider Christina Cha was left flummoxed by the realization she’d been a patsy, used to help sell the bluff to Culpepper.

In Cumbie’s parlance, he had once again taken the head off the snake, eliminating the biggest threat to his power. Host Jeff Probst, once again, was unconvinced.

“You admit the other tribe is stronger, and then you vote out arguably your strongest member because she was too big of a threat,” Probst mused. “Interesting strategy on only Day 14.”

Probst was referring to the fact that the game isn’t half over yet, so discarding strong players is risky. Evidently it’s not the only danger: A preview glimpse of next week’s episode indicates that a player will be lost to injury, the second such case this season.